


Answer Me

by tokillaladybug



Series: AU Yeah August 2018 [12]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU Yeah AUgust (Miraculous Ladybug), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Circus, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alya Césaire Is The Best, Alya Césaire-centric, Circus, Gen, Inspired by The Night Circus, Season 2 spoilers, but not really consistent with it, not really spoilers if you're looking for a fic with jade/carapace, that's literally it - Freeform, that's the spoiler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 08:00:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15725271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokillaladybug/pseuds/tokillaladybug
Summary: Alya tries to find answers when at the magic circus of mysteries, but everyone is cryptic and unresponsive.  She'll do everything she can to get her big break and show everyone that she's a true reporter.  (Very loosely inspired by The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern)"This circus though, well, this was different.  This was Le Cirque Disparaître.  Le Cirque Mystérieux.  La Nuit Joyeuse.  This was the circus of rumors, of myths, and above all, Alya knew she was not going to miss it."Day 18 AU Yeah August: Circus.





	Answer Me

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't read The Night Circus since I was 14, so this isn't really compliant with that universe. Mostly just strongly inspired by the magic and whimsy of a mysterious circus appearing in the night. If you haven't read that book, it's totally fine. If you have, let me know how close/far off I was!

Alya had seen many traveling shows and circuses come through her town, and none of them had ever been anything special. With their novelty toys, animal cruelty, and creepy clowns, she’d decided that she never needed to see another circus again. Her town was only a short drive outside of Paris, and its abundance of wide open fairgrounds and parks made the perfect stopping point for these groups to set up shop for weeks on end. She usually couldn’t wait for the first winter chills to come sweeping through and send them packing.

This circus though, well, this was different. This was Le Cirque Disparaître. Le Cirque Mystérieux. La Nuit Joyeuse. This was the circus of rumors, of myths, and above all, Alya knew she was not going to miss it. 

Just like the rumors always said, the tents formed in the middle of the night. No one saw anyone new enter or leave town, the fence constructed, or the tents being put upright. There were no flyers or billboards, no noises from the grounds, and nothing on any social media. Alya was always skeptical of those things, especially given the age of the internet and cell phones, but there was apparently nothing, not even security footage from the nearby gas station. 

During the day the fairgrounds were deserted. No one could be seen through the fence posts milling about or preparing anything. Only as the sun started to set did people come out in their costumes, firing up the food vendor stations near the main entrance. The ticket booth started accepting payment just as the sky was turning pink, but no one was allowed through the entrance until after the last of the sun’s light faded below the horizon. 

There was no way Alya was going to miss this. She was going to document everything and post it straight to her blog as soon as she could. Then those agencies would see. She’d wave her proof in their faces for all the rejections. 

She would finally get out of this little town. 

Alya could see the flickering of the lanterns in the distance as she trekked across the grounds to the entrance. A seemingly endless set of vintage-style pop-up tents peppered the landscape, all of varying sizes. The tents were all black with white accents, some spotted, striped, or splattered. The ground turned from the dead and dying grass to a soft, plush, leaf covered moss as she approached the gates. Strange for this time of year. 

After Alya bought her ticket, she made her way through the crowd hovering near the entrance. The breeze cut through her coat and she hugged her scarf closer to her neck. She pulled her hair down from its braid and tossed it into her usual wild mess of curls, hoping for a little extra warmth. 

With her camera out, she took as many photos as she could, of tents, the crowd, and the booths. She pushed her way to the edges of the main crowd and moved further into the sea of tents. With her phone, she took a quick selfie and then a video spinning 360 degrees from her spot. In her excitement, she slipped both devices into her bag and decided to explore for a while. 

She slipped into the first tent, one of the largest and situated right near the front of the park. Inside, she couldn’t believe her eyes. She took a few steps forward and stared.

Inside, the walls of the tent seemed to disappear. The ground was plush mossy grass covered with bright summer flowers. Trees sprouted up on either side of her, growing into a thicker forest in front of her. Insects buzzed all around and the air felt warm and damp. She saw many other people enter where she did, but as she stepped forward many of them were blocked from her view by the trees. The canopy of the tent couldn’t be seen, only the thick leaves of the trees acted as a roof.

In front of her were some stepping stones made of dark wood that formed a path through the trees. Alya followed them in awe, brushing her fingers along the tree trunks as she walked. 

The path led her up from the ground, turning into an elaborate series of wooden walkways and platforms. She could see a few people milling about in the distance, all on other parts of the walkways or still on the ground, but the tent went on beyond her eye’s reach, and from the people she’d seen enter, there had to be so much more unexplored area. 

As she walked along a path surrounding the base of a particularly large tree, a ladybug flew straight towards her, perching on her glasses. For a moment she didn’t realize what it was and danced out of the way, but the bug clung on. She lifted her finger to the edge of her glasses and let it crawl into her hand. She kept walking, but her gaze was fixed on this bug that didn’t want to leave her no matter what she did. She pulled her camera from her bag long enough to snap a picture of it perched on her thumbnail. 

In fact, she was so fixated on this bug, she barely registered a pair of shoes in front of her face before she could dodge them.

Alya spun herself around in a wide circle, half-crouched. Her whirlwind of hair blocked some of her vision, but she was able to straighten on the other side of these shoes after a moment’s breath. 

Looking up, she saw that the shoes weren’t alone but rather were attached to a voluminous pile of black skirts. At first, she couldn’t see much past the layers of fabric, but the girl wearing them leaned over her knees and showed herself.

Her dark hair was pinned up in an elegant bun, with glittering jewels dusting the loose tendrils. Her face was pale, and her eyes gleamed bright blue behind her dark mask. Her entire outfit was black, except for the red ribbon weaving through her hair and a glittering red jewel set in the hollow of her throat. She watched Alya from her perch on one of the low hanging branches, and for quite a few breaths they stared in silence. 

“Could you watch where you put your feet, lady? I’d rather not get kicked in the head.” Alya huffed in annoyance and straightened her coat from where it had twisted around herself. 

“My friend likes you. I wonder why.” The girl continued to watch her, eyed locked on where the ladybug stayed crawling on Alya’s hand. How did it stay there all this time? 

“Did you hear me? You nearly kicked me? I could have been concussed.”

In a flurry of bouncing black skirts, the girl jumped from her perch and landed on the walkway in front of Alya. She held her hand out and the ladybug flew over to her. The bug crawled up her arm and settled on her shoulder. “What do you think of my creation?” She gestured around them.

Alya took a step back, creating some space between them. “You made this place? It’s beautiful. Would you mind giving me a statement?” She held out her phone to record.

The girl giggled, “That won’t work here, but you may try if you must.”

Alya started recording and asked, “What’s your name? How did you create this tent? It seems to go on forever.”

“Here, I don’t have a name, although,” she rested a hand on her collar, not far from the bug’s perch, “You may call me Ladybug. I create many things. This tent is for those who need something they have not found elsewhere.” 

“How did you get here? How long will the circus be here? Can you show me how you created this tent?”

“I could show you if you like, but, I think there is another path for you.” Ladybug started walking away, stepping down a stairway back to the ground. 

“Wait, Ladybug!” Alya quickly followed after her, trying to keep her phone at an appropriate height for filming her face. “Why can’t you show me? The world needs to know. I need to know.” She nearly slipped on a slippery moss covered stone. Grabbing onto a nearby branch to catch herself, she watched as Ladybug moved further and further away. 

Ladybug seemed nearly gliding along the path now. As she grew more and more hidden by the trees, she called over her shoulder, “Make your way to the Golden Girl when you are ready. You should find what you need.”  
Before Alya could reach her, she was gone. 

Alya tried rushing down the path, but no matter how far she ran there was no sign of Ladybug. Eventually, Alya started walking, and then she started grumbling, and then she started complaining about being lost in this stupid, nonsensical forest. 

A forest this big could never have fit into the space the tent occupied, and it wouldn’t feel this empty when so many people had been seen entering. 

Not more than a few minutes after, Alya started seeing people. And then she saw the flickering lights of the entrance. She rushed towards the opening, nearly bowling over a few people in her rush. 

Bursting through the entrance, the first thing that hit her was the chill. Then the noise of the crowd flooded back to her ears and the smells of the vendors. This side of the tent was unfamiliar to her, though she could see where she originally entered in the distance. 

Pulling her scarf tight again, she contemplated leaving now, but she still wanted as much information for her blog as possible. 

Turning away from the Ladybug tent, she trudged further into the park. There were people milling about here, but the crowd had thinned and it was easier to see the different tents around. She almost went into a few, but she decided to heed Ladybug’s words and first try to find this ‘Golden Girl’.

It didn’t take long. Not 100 meters from where she exited Ladybug’s tent there was a brightly glinting golden statue of a girl standing on a pedestal. Her hair cascaded down her shoulders in waves. While one hand held the topmost layer of her voluminous skirt, the other pointed upwards in the sky. Her gaze followed her own hand upwards. Everything about her was golden, from her dress to her skin to her hair. 

Alya stood at the edge of the small crowd fascinated with the statue. She wasn’t sure how this was supposed to give her what she was looking for, but she took a few photos all the same. 

Alya wasn’t expecting the statue to move.

The statue’s head turned to face Alya where she stood, and their eyes met. In one fluid motion, the Golden Girl took her hand from where it was aimed skywards and pointed it towards the entrance of one of the other tents. It stayed frozen, staring at Alya until she started to walk towards the tent. Only then did the statue return to its previous position. 

This tent was smaller than Ladybug’s – at least from the outside – but it was larger than many of the other tents around. With moving statues and fantastical forests, Alya really wanted to get some answers. 

She pushed her way into the tent and marched forward, but she regretted it a moment later. As the flaps of the tent closed behind her, she was encased in near total darkness. The room was eerily silent, the noise from outside was muffled beyond recognition. In front of her lay a sea of floating crystals – the only light in the room. 

She walked up to the nearest one, holding her hand to it. The dim light reflected against her palm but didn’t reach even to her wrist. 

She waved her hand around it in every direction, trying to figure out how it was suspended like that. No matter which way she put her hand, she could feel no string, no post, nothing connected in any way. 

When she touched it, it felt cool. It gave some resistance, but it moved to where she pushed. It did not swing back into place as if on a pendulum, or slide back like on a pulley. It merely rested where she left it. She tried examining a few of the other crystals to no avail. They all reacted the same. 

Making her way through the tent was difficult. The darkness was so thick that even as her eyes tried to adjust, she couldn’t see herself in the space, and each step felt like stepping off into an abyss. 

She knew her camera wouldn’t be able to take photos in such low light, so she started to record her voice on her phone and dictate what she saw. She spent a few moments cautiously stepping through the sea of crystals and dictating in a low voice.

“Those don’t work here.” 

Alya jumped and spun around looking for the owner of the voice. She pushed a wave of the crystals away in her haste. The voice had come from right next to her ear, but she couldn’t see anyone in the darkness. She called out, “Who’s there?” 

She could see the flash of a hand in the glow of one of the crystals. A pace away she caught the tails of a tux. And after another pace, a face came into view. His green eyes glowed as he peered into one of the larger crystals, and his black mask sparkled – not unlike the one Ladybug wore earlier. He held his hand to the crystal and ran his finger around the edge. 

Alya took a step back and watched him. “I was told you could give me answers.”

“No my dear, I believe you were told that I could show you what you need.”

Alya scoffed, “Same thing. I need information about this place for my blog. It’ll be my big break!”

“What do you think of this room?” He stepped away from the crystal he had been examining and disappeared into the shadows. 

“It’s interesting. How do you get them to move like that and stay suspended? Magnets?”

The man’s laugh resounded loudly. “You can put that away now, it’s no use here,” he gestured to her phone – it was still recording. 

Alya clutched her phone tighter and didn’t move. She didn’t know where he was now in the room. “What’s your name?”

“Call me Chat Noir.” 

Alya whirled around to face behind herself where his voice came from. “How does the circus work?”

Right next to her ear, he said, “I cannot help you.”

She jumped and stepped back. She still couldn’t see him anywhere. “Stop that! It’s creepy.”

He laughed and he laughed, eventually saying, “Good luck, but you won’t find your answers like that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Alya was met with silence. “Chat Noir?” After letting a minute pass with no response, she decided to leave the tent. He obviously didn’t want to help her, and whether or not he was still in the tent, she had no idea. 

She shuffled her way through the crystals until there were no more in front of her, and she soon felt the fabric of the tent under her fingers. Following the wall sideways, her fingers caught on the edge where a thin sliver of light could be seen. She pushed and was surrounded again by the bright lights and loud noises of the crowd. Though the fairgrounds were lit only by lantern, it was so bright to her and she stood there for a moment to let her eyes adjust. 

Frustrated and unsure of what to do next, she decided to look through all of the photos and video she’d taken so far this evening. She sat down with her back to one of the tents. 

She didn’t think it was possible for nearly every photo to be ruined. 

On her camera roll, every single photo was unusable. Some were completely black, some blurry beyond recognition, and some said that the file was corrupted and unreadable. Her phone wasn’t much better. The only photo that came out clear was the selfie she took at the very beginning, and even that one had an overexposed background that was nearly white. The video she took was all corrupted. The visuals were completely black, and the audio was garbled and full of static. It was possible to hear things she said occasionally, but everything else was white noise. 

Alya pushed back tears of frustration. Throwing her camera and her phone into her bag, she pushed herself up and marched into the nearest tent. 

Alya didn’t take much notice of the room, only that there were no patrons, and a man in a mask sat across the room. She strode right up to him and said, “Look here mister, I don’t know what everyone is trying to get at but I’ve had it! Your little friends have been nothing but dead ends and I need answers. I’m not leaving until I know everything about this place!”

He smiled at her. “Hello Miss Cesaire.”

When he said her name, she stepped back in surprise. “How do you know my name?” He didn’t say anything else, so she looked around as she collected her thoughts. 

This tent was smaller than many of the others. Inside the walls were layered with fabric in many shades of green and black. The light in here was brighter than outside, with a ring of lanterns strung to the top of the tent. There was a small table to the side of the room with two chairs. One of these chairs is where the man sat. 

He was dressed in a dark suit. The fabric seemed black at first glance, but when he shifted and caught the light it was actually a very deep green. Though he had a mask across his face as well, this one was much simpler than the ones Alya had seen on Ladybug and Chat Noir. 

“Well?” She asked. “How do you know my name? What can you tell me about this place? Why is everyone here so cryptic? Why won’t my phone and camera work?”

“Will you dance with me?” He stood from his seat and held out a hand to her. 

Alya groaned in frustration and shoved her hands in her hair, tugging harshly. She felt the need to ground herself. “Why won’t anyone here answer me?” She nearly shouted at him. 

“Will you not dance with me?” He gently coaxed her hand from her hair and held it in his own. 

She dropped her bag to the ground with a thud and held out her other hand. “If it’ll get you to answer a damn question, sure. What more do I have to lose?” She looked into his honey brown eyes and waited, but her resolve faded under his gaze. “I –uh, well. I can’t dance though.”

He laughed and took her hands in his. Sliding one to his shoulder, he held her closely around her waist and danced. He spun them in circles so quickly that Alya felt she could barely keep her feet beneath her. Her hair fanned around her and her scarf slipped from her neck. The walls blurred behind her, and to stop from feeling sick she kept her focus close. She examined the subtle embroidery stitched into his suit coat and her hand on his shoulder slipped down to touch it. 

Eventually, his laughter infected her too. She laughed as she felt the room spin and her stomach filled with excitement. Her head felt light from the movement and her frustrations melted away. Maybe that was the point?

He slowed their dancing and their laughter faded, but Alya could still see the smile on his face. She could feel the twinge in her cheeks from smiling so long. 

“Call me Carapace, Miss Cesaire.”

Alya wasn’t sure what to say. She looked down at her shoes, only to see the floor meters below them. Somehow, they were dancing on thin air as if it were solid. She shut her eyes tight and waited to fall but it never came. After a while, she opened them again and looked to Carapace. “What is this place?”

He pulled her even closer, though Alya hadn’t thought it possible, and asked, “Would you like me to show you? Would you like to join us?”

Alya thought about her blog and her tiny apartment and everyone that thought she’d never make it in the world of journalism. She thought about her time here and her friends away on their own adventures and being stuck in this godforsaken town. She thought about the magic and the mystery and the unanswered questions. She thought. 

“Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Whew! That took so much longer to write than I thought. I hope that there are no major grammar/spelling issues, I haven't gotten much of a chance at a read through since I've been rushing to finish this morning. 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading that! Even though it was a lot of work, I had a ton of fun writing this. Let me know what you thought, as always, comment and kudos are very much appreciated. If you want to reach out to me on Tumblr, I have a blog by the same username. See you all for the next prompt!


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